Fewer Americans are Willing to Relocate for Employment

People are now less likely than ever to pack up their chattels and lives for a job

Last year saw 3.5 million American relocate for work, a 10 per cent drop from 3.8 million in 2015.

It is all in the numbers.

In the 1990s, job-related moves were between 20% and 35%, now roughly 10% of job seekers relocated for new opportunities in the first half of this year. Obviously, this results in significantly fewer Americans willing to relocate for employment.

Licensing requirements are becoming tougher to transfer from one state to another.

A tighter labour market means people who don’t want to move can find work in their local area.

With a rise in divorces, more people with children are less likely to move after a divorce. This is likely because more and more parents choose to have shared custody.

More families have both parents involved in raising their children, to relocate for employment is far easier said than done.

They are taking their children into consideration and not wanting to disrupt their routines, for a job elsewhere.

More families have both parents working, making it difficult to replicate the family income if only one has a new job waiting.

As the country grows older, more are staying closer to take care of ageing parents.

This is definitely a change from where the whole family moved with the husband’s career.

Another key factor in all of this, is job certainty isn’t there in many places and people are asking themselves, “Am I going to uproot my family and relocate for employment? For what? And for how long?”

Companies never used to think of asking the question about a move, as it typically wasn’t a problem. There was this loyalty within the company you worked for that if you got promoted and had to move, you just did it.

Today there are more pieces that need to be considered and a move sometimes isn’t one of them.

Sonia Rina Landry is a passionate entrepreneur, speaker, author, and personal development coach. She is an outspoken advocate of the free market economy and has helped countless clients identify their core values, envision and realize goals that resonate with those values. She oversees several businesses online and offline.